Citizenship on Trial: The NRC, Exclusion, and the Making of Foreigners in Assam, India
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Abstract
This paper examines the evolution and enforcement of the ‘foreigner’ category in Assam, India, focusing on how the National Register of Citizens (NRC) has produced exclusionary citizenship and statelessness. It asks how and why the notion of the ‘foreigner’ has taken shape in Assam, and what sustains its persistence in contemporary state practice. The study shows that citizenship in Assam is determined less by legal rights than by descent, ethnicity, and documentary proof, resulting in the disproportionate exclusion of linguistic, religious, and gender minorities. Drawing on documentary analysis and ethnographically inspired fieldwork that foregrounds lived experiences, the paper traces how colonial, Partition, and post-Partition anxieties have crystallized into a regime of suspicion and surveillance. It demonstrates that bureaucratic discretion, legal ambiguity, and inconsistent NRC procedures have institutionalized widespread legal limbo and arbitrary exclusion, producing deep social and psychological harm. Assam’s experience illustrates how securitized citizenship regimes erode the “right to have rights” and signal broader patterns of democratic erosion in India and South Asia.
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